Compact High-Redshift Galaxies Are the Cores of the Most Massive Present-Day Spheroids

TL;DR

High-redshift compact galaxies are likely the dense cores of today's massive ellipticals, with their apparent size differences explained by low-density outer regions that are undetected at high redshift.

Contribution

This study challenges the idea that high-z galaxies must 'puff up' by showing their core densities are comparable to low-z galaxies, suggesting a continuous buildup of spheroids.

Findings

High-z and low-z systems have similar stellar surface densities at the same radii.

Low-density material in low-z spheroids accounts for size differences.

High-z galaxies may be underestimated in size due to observational limitations.

Abstract

Observations suggest that effective radii of high-z massive spheroids are as much as a factor ~6 smaller than low-z galaxies of comparable mass. Given the apparent absence of low-z counterparts, this has often been interpreted as indicating that the high density, compact red galaxies must be 'puffed up' by some mechanism. We compare the ensemble of high-z observations with large samples of well-observed low-z ellipticals. At the same physical radii, the stellar surface mass densities of low and high-z systems are comparable. Moreover, the abundance of high surface density material at low redshift is comparable to or larger than that observed at z>1-2, consistent with the continuous buildup of spheroids over this time. The entire population of compact, high-z red galaxies may be the progenitors of the high-density cores of present-day ellipticals, with no need for a decrease in stellar density from z=2 to z=0. The primary difference between low and high-z systems is thus the observed low-density material at large radii in low-z spheroids (rather than the high-density material in high-z spheroids). Such low-density material may either (1) assemble at z<2 or (2) be present, but not yet detected, at z>2. Mock observations of low-z massive systems show that the high-z observations do not yet probe sufficiently low surface brightness material to detect the low surface density 'wings' (if present). Thus, if the high-z galaxies resemble the most massive systems today, their inferred effective radii could be under-estimated by factors ~2-4. This difference arises because massive systems at low redshift are not well-fit by single Sersic profiles. We discuss implications of our results for physical models of galaxy evolution.